178 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



the most successful to ensnare and overcome 

 his enemy. The situation and state of the 

 country, overspread with thick forests, lead to 

 the same method. The situation of the tribe, 

 scattered and dispersed in the woods, suggested 

 iiiG same idea. The method of fighting could 

 not be in the open fields, but among the trees. 

 And he wisely placed the point of honour, in 

 the public good ; where the prospect and the 

 pr(jbability of his success lay. Had the honour 

 of the Indian warrior been placed, in courting 

 fame and victory in the open field, the whole 

 tribe would have been destroyed by the effusion 

 of blood that must have succeeded. His max- 

 ims therefore were better r' ■ -en, and thev were 

 such as every circumstance in his situation and 

 epiployment naturally led him to : Not in an 

 useless ostentation of daring courage and bold- 

 ness, but in the public utility and advantage. 

 So far as an enterprize depended on secrecy, 

 subtlety, surprize, and impetuosity, the Indian 

 method of war seems to have been fully equal 

 to the European. The Spaniards, the French, 

 the English, and the States of America, have 

 had many and painful proofs of their address 

 and prowess in this method. But when a fort 

 was erected, or a small fortification to be carri- 

 ed, the Indian method of war whollv failed. 

 Neither their arms, their arts, or their customs, 

 were of any avail here. Wholly unacquainted 

 with the art of fortification, they could neither 

 erect, or take a fort of any strength. Wtien 

 the Europeans had once got possession of any 

 part of their country, and erected a small forti- 

 fication in their tcmtories, they held it by a 



